Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-06-16
CLEANING THE GOLD FIELDS.
The cleaners Gathering More Than
the Original Haryesters.

The Cleaners Gathering More Than
the Original Harvesters.
They who gathered the first crop
of gold from the California placers,
did their work in such a hasty and
wasteful manner that much of the
crop was left behind, this waste hav.
ing been due not moro to. such haste
than to the imperfect methods and ap.
planes whsrewith the work was
done. The aim of the pioneer miner
was to wash as much dirt as possible,
to which end great quantities of water
we're used in machines set at high
angles, little or no quicksilver having
been employed at first. Operating
under these conditions, nearly all of
the extremely fine gold passing off
with the tailings was lost, and even
much of the tolerably coarse went the
same way.
As those first in the field washed
the auriferous earth in q hurried and
careless way, so also did they leave a
good deal of poorer ground unworked,
Us it would not pay what in those
days was considered miners wages.
Between the ground so left and the
secondary deposits formed by the
rich tailings, large population has
during all these years found material
on which to prosecute the business oil
placer mining in its more simple and
inexpensive forms, these operations
being outside the quartz, drift and
hydraulic workings. There are, in
this State, Chinese included, between
5000 and 10000 men engaged ir
river-bed operations, working ovel
bars, gulches and tailings, ground
sluicing and other kinds of surface
mining. The most of these opera.
tons are intermittent, some being car.
ried on only in the summer, and
others only in the winter; but these
men generally earn good wages 70,
the time they are at work. For the
successful prosecution of these
branches of mining not much capital
is required, hence their attraction tc
men of small means.
Even though it undergo no enlarge.
ment, this province of mining will
for long time afford, as it now does,
profitable employment for a great
many men. But there is probabil.
ity that it will, in some of its depart.
ments, be extended. Should hydraulic
operations come to be actively re.
sumed, the failing deposits, already
largely accumulated in the beds Of
the rivers and canyons, would be fur.
Their increased, adding to. the materia
that will some day have to undergo q
rehandling. With the improvements
made for recovering the geld from the
auriferous beach sands it may be ex
pected that this branch of mining viii
be reinstated and greatly extended
as these deposits are almost without
limit, and have as yet only been skim
med of their cream, SO to speak
Then, we have in California a vas
area of what are known as dry dig
glngs, being shallow placers WHERE
water is so scant that the dirt has t
be manipulated by the process callee
) dry washing. Here again the method
for handling this class of deposit
hitherto Ia use have been so improved
upon that we may count upon the lat
ter being extensively utilized in tn
: early future. Aside from our quartz
l drift and hydraulic mines, we have il
. these partially exhausted placers an
other surface deposits resources tina
will suffice to give California promi
3 nence as a gold.producing countr
for century to come. Our CLEANER
gather more than the harvesters i
most other gold fields of the WORLD
and our stubble ground is extensive
with the possibility of its undergoin
much expansion Mining and Scier
ti6c Press.